5/6/07

Saana Murry

She(Saana) for years was at the front line to combat the loss of our taonga, culture & rights. She walked away from her lifetimes work...which was the strongest possible protest she could have made against a Treaty Claim that was meant to protect our Flora & Fauna et al, but already our taonga were being hocked off to the highest bidder, by Maori pimps. This kuia has always talked and fought for our rights and was a stanch advocate of our Independence as well, pretty much silence from the Maori media, when you get the feeling in alot of different rohe that their is major dissatisfaction with the "treaty settlement(extinguish) process"

As indigenous peoples who are experiencing a further wave of colonisation through global economic capitalism, and who as a result are hugely over-represented in all negative indices, the challenge is to seek ways of transforming these outcomes not only for Maori but for all who live within Aotearoa. Outstanding whaea such as Whina Cooper, Eva Rickard, Mira Szaszy, Sana Murray to name but a few, have led the way for the current endeavours by Maori women to combat the loss of Maori traditional values and the insidious forms of colonisation being asserted by economic globalisation. Within indigenous peoples and in particular, indigenous women are the seeds for a new world order based on traditional values of manakitanga, kaitiakitanga, wairuatanga. However if this new global order is not to continue the same inequities that have been perpetuated on indigenous peoples and women through global free trade, that model requires as a basic fundamental the acknowledgement of indigenous peoples' continued colonisation and the acknowledgement of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination.

A Hikoi against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment from April 13 and May 5 took the campaign against foreign control of Aotearoa to towns and communities from Te Hapua to Poneke.

Led by Saana Murray, a respected kuia in her seventies from Ngaati Kuri in the far North, the hikoi saw around 40 of her whaanau and supporters walking the length of the North Island. When they attempted to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge, in the footsteps of the great land march of 1975, 24 participants were arrested, including a 14 year old boy. Rallies were held in support in towns on the route.

Murray is one of the principal claimants to the Waitangi Tribunal on the question of the commodification of taonga maaori as intellectual property rights. Under the MAI proposals, these seem destined to be defined and controlled globally, rather than by the Hapuu and Iwi to whom kaitiakitanga or even 'ownership', more justly belongs.

While the Hikoi was launched at the time that the Government was publicly backing away from signing the MAI, it aimed to highlight the long-term attack on self-determination being mobilised by multinationals.

While the Hikoi targeted MAI, the main demand was for a strengthening of Maori rights to Self Determination against government complicity in selling out indigenous resources, calling on Maori to assert their tino rangatiratanga and reclaim the treaty settlement process. Demands included sacking the Waitangi Fisheries Commission and a suspension of treaty settlements until constitutional changes had secured tino rangatiratanga. The marches emphasised the strategic role the Treaty could play in defending the rights of all oppressed peoples in Aotearoa

The Wai 262 claim was filed in 1991 on behalf of six claimant Iwi. The claim began as a vision of Maori elders including, Hemanui-a-Tawhaki (Dell) Wihongi (Te Rarawa),Saana Murray (Ngati Kuri), Witi McMath (Ngati Wai), John Hippolite (Ngati Koata) andTama Poata (Te Whanau a Rua of Ngati Porou) and Christine Rimene (NgatiKahungunu). These kaumatua were becoming concerned at the apparent loss of nativeflora and fauna to overseas interests and the lack of Maori involvement and participation regarding decision making concerning the granting of intellectual property rights over this flora and fauna.

Pacific Media Centre

Scoop Pacific

bilaterals.org

Aotearoa IMC - Newswire

"Australia and NZ remained unrepentant for their brutal suppression of indigenous independence movements in the Pacific. They rationalized such behavior as enhancing the welfare of the Islands and the human development of their people – just as they justified similar behavior towards indigenous peoples in their own countries"